Protecting Caroline (SEAL of Protection Book 1) (20 page)

            “Seriously, Hunter,
quit it. I’m not an invalid. I can carry some of my stuff.”

            “I know you’re not an
invalid, Ice, but this box is too heavy for you. I got it.”

            Caroline huffed and
let Hunter take the box out of her arms and watched as he carried it into the
house. She really couldn’t stay mad at any of Matthew’s friends. She loved them
all. Not as much as she loved Matthew, but she didn’t know what she’d do without
them. They’d done their best to make sure she and Matthew had time together
while they’d been living on opposite sides of the country. She knew they’d
taken some assignments for him and had let him take extra time off just so he
could fly out to see her.

The first time
she’d seen Sam’s face she’d broken down in sobs. She hadn’t been crying because
of his looks, exactly. She’d told him flat out, “It’s my fault.”

Mozart had been
pissed and had held her face in his hands and sternly said, “Bull. Ice,
you
didn’t do this. The terrorists did. If I had to do it again, I’d do it all
exactly the same way.”

“But your poor
face...” Sam didn’t say anything but just crossed his arms and glared at her.

Finally he put
two fingers over her lips and wouldn’t let her continue her thoughts.
“Seriously, I’m all right. Yeah, I have scars. Yeah, women sometimes look over
and through me as a result, but it doesn’t mean a damn thing to me, Ice. Now I
don’t want to hear you ever apologize to me about it again. Hear me?”

            Caroline could only
nod. “Okay, but you
will
let me find some of that cream that can help
reduce the scarring. I know some women get it when they have C-sections. You’ll
put it on every night until I tell you you’re done with it.” She tried to sound
bossy, but didn’t know how well she’d succeeded when Sam just laughed at her
and brought her toward him with a hand at her neck and kissed her forehead.

Caroline had
watched Sam after that, and it looked like he’d told her the truth. He didn’t
seem to care about his face, and as time went on it had healed somewhat, but
he’d never be as “pretty” as he’d been before. She’d given him the tube of cream
she’d threatened to get for him. He’d grumbled about it, but had promised he’d
been using it. Caroline knew it’d never be enough to completely make the
feelings of guilt subside, but she’d promised not to bring it up again.

            After five months of
dating, Caroline had had enough of her long distance relationship with Matthew.
She told him while they were lying in bed one night that she didn’t want to
waste any more time. She’d contacted her old boss back in California and he’d
agreed to let her have her old job back. They hadn’t been able to find a
replacement for her yet, so he was thrilled to have her back in the fold.

            Matthew didn’t waste
any time. The second she said she wanted to move back to California, he’d
contacted a real estate agent and gotten to work trying to find them a place to
live. They’d finally agreed on a small house with a full basement. It wasn’t
her dream house, but she’d live anywhere as long as Matthew was with her.

            They’d spent some
hilarious nights with the team. Caroline thought, as she had the first time
she’d seen them, they were sex-on-a-stick, and apparently the ladies in
California did too. They all rotated girlfriends as often as she changed her
shoes, which was a
lot
. Even Sam’s scars didn’t seem to deter many
women, much to her relief. Caroline tolerated the skanky women as best she
could. Luckily Matthew knew how she felt and when they all met up on date
night, he’d excuse them early.

            They’d go home and
make love until the wee hours of the morning. That was one of the best things
about being in the same town as Matthew. She could have him whenever she
wanted. And she wanted him a lot. They were well matched as far as their
libidos went. Matthew never seemed to get tired of her and always complimented
her lavishly. In return she’d let Matthew get bossy in bed. But when he got
bossy, she never went to sleep unsatisfied. It was a good tradeoff.

            Caroline’s life was
wonderful and she couldn’t be happier. She found it extremely nerve-racking
whenever Matthew and his team had to head out on a mission, but one night,
seeing her stressing about it, Matthew had tried to reassure her.

            “Caroline, I know
it’s not easy to be with me, but you have to know I’ll do whatever it takes to
get back to you. How could I do anything less when you fought so hard to stay
alive until I could find you and rescue you? Trust me. Trust in the team.”

            She’d understood. She
had
fought to live, for him. If she hadn’t loved him she would’ve given
up long before she found herself in the middle of the ocean struggling to stay
afloat.

            All was well in her
life. She had almost everything she ever wanted. The only thing missing was girlfriends.
She hadn’t had any close friends in her life, but she wanted that. All around
her she saw moms shopping with their daughters, friends at the spa enjoying the
day, or women sitting down for a quick lunch during the work week.

            She hoped Matthew’s
team would find women to love, women she could be friends with, but she was
losing hope. The bitches the men hung out with were definitely
not
the
kind of people she wanted to associate with. She had no idea what they saw in
them…okay, well she
did
, but she knew none of them were good enough for
them outside the bedroom.

            Caroline thought
about Christopher. He was dating one of the worst of the bunch, some chick
named Adelaide. She acted like she was so much better than Caroline and it
drove her crazy. She figured she must be
really
good in bed, because the
Christopher
she
knew deserved so much better. She knew part of his past,
and it was time he found a good woman. Someone who’d put him first. She sighed.
She might as well wish for the moon. Adelaide knew she’d latched onto someone
so much better than her. Who knew what she’d do to keep him?

            Caroline felt arms
come around her and pull her backward. She leaned back into Matthew.

            “Happy?”

            “You have to ask?”
Caroline scolded him. She laid her head on his shoulder and felt him turn his
head to kiss her temple.

            “The house isn’t too
small for you?”

            Caroline turned in
Matthew’s arms. “I couldn’t care less where we live. I just want to fall asleep
in your arms every night and wake up in them in the morning. I love you. I’d go
thorough everything all over again as long as it meant I’d end up right here
again.”

            Wolf didn’t say
anything, just leaned down and kissed her. Hard.

            “Hey you two, quit
it! Come help us carry more boxes in.”

            They laughed as
Faulkner bitched at them. Caroline smiled up at Matthew. She had no idea how
she’d been lucky enough to end up with this man, but she wasn’t giving him
back. He was hers. Now and forever.

Susan Stoker has a heart as big as the state of Texas where she lives but
this all American girl has also spent the last fourteen years living in
Missouri, California, Colorado, and Indiana. She is quite the romantic and even
met the love of her life on "Hotmail classified" before online dating
and sites like match.com even existed!

Susan has been reading romance novels since middle school and once crossed
out the names of the main characters in a book and changed them to her own and
to the name of her crush. She's been writing scenes for years, developing her
unique writing style.

Susan loves writing but her true passion is adopting dogs from rescue groups
and shelters. Susan and her husband have had a total of nine
"rescued" dogs since 2000 including a variety of basset hounds and
bloodhounds. She has recently branched out and adopted a basset/terrier mix who
acts more like a terrier than a basset (i.e. digging, eating a couch and being
hyper). If you love romance and want to help her support adopting great dogs,
be sure to check out her work listed below.

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Discover other titles
by Susan Stoker

SEAL
of Protection Series:

Protecting
Caroline

Beyond
Reality Series:

Outback
Hearts

Flaming
Hearts

Frozen
Hearts

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